Daily Archives: June 16, 2010

Tuesday 15th June saw the second day of the 2010 Annual Meeting of the National Partners Initiative. The day was dedicated to round table discussions.

In the morning Victoria Henson-Apollonio and Francesca Re Manning of CAS-IP along with David Schindell from the Smithstonian Institution led a discussion on “Data Distribution and Use”. This covered some of the issues relating to access, data release, attribution, data sharing, access and benefits, the CBD and the ITPGRFA. The afternoon the session was on branding and market development with participation from; Karl Manders, President of Continental Enterprises, William Mansfield, Director of Intellectual Property for ABRO, and Jonathan Rosenthal from Just Works. Peter Bloch who moderated the session said:

…all three panelists are leaders in their respective fields, and I felt that the input and feedback they provided was of real value. And, if nothing else, Bill Mansfield provided some much-needed comic relief! The takeaway for me personally was corroboration that community enforcement of informally held IP that I have been working on in Malawi is indeed a direction worth pursuing. The panelists also planted an important idea – that the IP practices of the North are not necessarily all relevant to the South, and I hope that the NPI participants will carry this message home with them

There was a bitter sweet ending to the day. This summer Victoria Henson-Apollonio will be retiring. In her honour, the NPI group made presentations traditional to their country of origin. Victoria was draped with fabrics and given gifts from the four corners of the globe! Victoria, we are all going to miss your energy and input into CAS-IP and the NPI when you leave!